Judas Iscariot
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- For criticism see Criticism of Judas_Iscariot
Judas Iscariot was the infamous disciple who betrayed Jesus. According to the gospels, he took a band of armed men to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus was praying, and identified Jesus by kissing him on the cheek. After a minor scuffle, Jesus was arrested and taken to the Jewish religious authorities. They eventually turned him over to the Romans, who crucified him.
The Jewish authorities paid Judas a bribe of thirty pieces of silver. Matthew 26:14-16 says that simple greed for this money was the reason that Judas betrayed Jesus, and Luke 22:3 suggests that the Devil created this greed. But Judas didn't gain anything from the money, because he died shortly after he got it, possibly by suicide. Later a man named Matthias was chosen to take his place in the original group of twelve disciples.
During the ministry of Jesus, Judas was given charge of the disciples's money and kept it in a special box. John 12:6 says that he regularly stole some of it for his personal use.
Jesus knew beforehand that Judas would betray him. For this reason, some people have argued that Judas' actions were forced on him as part of a divine plan for the reconciliation between God and humankind. If true, this would mean that Judas didn't act in free will. However, many theologians say that he did act in free will and is being punished in hell for it.
Some scholars have suggested that Judas may have been involved in the Jewish underground resistance to the Roman occupation of Palestine. In fact, his surname Iscariot could indicate that he was a member of a group of rebel assassins called the Sicarii. These conjectures have led to a theory that he wanted Jesus to start an open revolt against the Romans, and that his disappointment over Jesus' refusal to do so was the cause of the betrayal.
A badly damaged copy of a previously lost Gospel of Judas has been discovered in modern times. This book is somewhat controversial in that it appears to say that Jesus asked Judas to betray him. However, most biblical scholars believe that this book wasn't written until the second century and therefore isn't a reliable source of information.
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